Thursday, April 26, 2012

Under Construction

How often do you examine your own leadership style? For me, it's not nearly enough. I try to involve the talented people around me in the decisions that need to be made; I reach out to experts outside my industry for help; and have even asked for very specific feedback from my team of direct reports. Once.

Tools, Tools and More ToolsWhether you use formal tools (coaching, training, 360, etc...); or focus on building relationships with your team and creating an environment where you can have relatively open and honest dialogue, it is up to those of us in leadership to take the first step. An important point here is not to get caught up in analyzing every option available for so long that you never actually get to the work that needs to be done. This is commonly referred to as analysis paralysis, and if affects leaders on just about every topic, particularly when critically evaluating their own style.

Get To Work

We regularly (read here => everyday) expect our employees to work hard, stay focused, improve over time, and make big contributions based on our guidance and leadership. But when do the leaders practice what they preach? Are we so all-knowing that we don't need to make sure we're evaluating our own performance and skills? Have we actually convinced ourselves that we've figured it all out and we just need a team of people to follow our lead?

Really? Good God I hope that is not the case for me.

How About You

How do keep working on your leadership style? Do you create an environment that is open to feedback; or, have you tested that path and heard exactly what you wanted to hear so there's no need to keep learning?

As much of the process is the same as it was in the v2 system, I simply copied many of the slides from earlier classes, one of which was about when to pay registration and certification fees. PE Builders